Sun fuels car chargers in St. Paul’s Como Park

St. Paul’s Como Park is set to fire up two solar-powered electric car charging stations at Como Lake and the nearby McMurray Fields. The official opening is expected within a couple of weeks. Several downtown city ramps have charging stations, as does the city-owned ramp at the Spruce Tree Center on the corner of University and Snelling avenues. Como, however, has the only solar-powered chargers so far. The concept may be strange to some, but enthusiasm for electric cars exists both in government and the industry. St. Paul used a portion of $2.8 million in federal stimulus for the solar stations. They cost $35,000 apiece, but get one-time rebates from Xcel Energy of $4,200 each. Minneapolis is planning to install three chargers this spring at the city-owned Haaf Ramp downtown. Chicago is installing hundreds of city-owned stations.

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/142719335.html